Word: spahr
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...sparsely decorated office tucked deep inside the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Spahr sifts through global reports of significant debris in the heavens and attempts to pinpoint long-term threats to Earth’s viability...
...want a weekend off, that’s kind of crappy,” says the surprisingly laid-back Spahr, who has been an avid astronomer since spying a comet at the age of five. “Only two of us [in the world] are tasked specifically with dealing with near-Earth asteroids...
After separating the false alarms from the potential catastrophes, Spahr forwards his calculations to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for final trajectory projections before heading home to sneak in an hour of bird watching before dusk. Planetary demise three decades away isn’t worth losing sleep over...
...Spahr posted a few promising asteroid locations on the Minor Planet Center website, before heading to dinner with a friend. But while he enjoyed his “only-once-a-year” night on the town, the alarms began to sound worldwide. An amateur astronomer forecast that one of Spahr’s potentials was rapidly approaching the sky somewhere over the Northern Hemisphere. Based on the information available, a 25 percent chance of a collision within days was quickly confirmed...
...never seen anything that’s gone over a percent after talking to our JPL guy,” Spahr said. “When I get something that looks fun, I send it to him immediately and he comes back with a number. One in 32 million or something. Nobody cares then...